Standoff: Ala. gunman kills bus driver, seizes boy

Law enforcement personnel work at check point Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013, in Midland City, Ala., near the home where the Tuesday's school bus shooting suspect is barricaded in a bunker with a young child as hostage. Police, SWAT teams and negotiators were at a rural property where a man was believed to be holed up in a homemade bunker Wednesday after fatally shooting the driver of a school bus and fleeing with a 6-year-old child passenger, authorities said. (AP Photo/The Dothan Eagle, Jay Hare)
— AP

Law enforcement personnel work at check point Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013, in Midland City, Ala., near the home where the Tuesday's school bus shooting suspect is barricaded in a bunker with a young child as hostage. Police, SWAT teams and negotiators were at a rural property where a man was believed to be holed up in a homemade bunker Wednesday after fatally shooting the driver of a school bus and fleeing with a 6-year-old child passenger, authorities said. (AP Photo/The Dothan Eagle, Jay Hare)
/ AP

In this Tuesday, Jan 29, 2013 photo, law enforcement officers walk up the road toward a home where a school bus shooting suspect was hiding inside a bunker late Tuesday. Police, SWAT teams and negotiators were at a rural property where a man was believed to be holed up in a homemade bunker Wednesday, HAN 30, 2013 after fatally shooting the driver of a school bus and fleeing with a 6-year-old child passenger, authorities said. The man boarded the stopped school bus in the town of Midland City on Tuesday afternoon and shot the driver when he refused to let the child off the bus. The bus driver died. (AP Photo/The Dothan Eagle, Danny Tindell)— AP

In this Tuesday, Jan 29, 2013 photo, law enforcement officers walk up the road toward a home where a school bus shooting suspect was hiding inside a bunker late Tuesday. Police, SWAT teams and negotiators were at a rural property where a man was believed to be holed up in a homemade bunker Wednesday, HAN 30, 2013 after fatally shooting the driver of a school bus and fleeing with a 6-year-old child passenger, authorities said. The man boarded the stopped school bus in the town of Midland City on Tuesday afternoon and shot the driver when he refused to let the child off the bus. The bus driver died. (AP Photo/The Dothan Eagle, Danny Tindell)
/ AP

In this Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013 photo, students and family leave the scene of the school bus shooting. Police, SWAT teams and negotiators were at a rural property where a man was believed to be holed up in a homemade bunker Wednesday, HAN 30, 2013 after fatally shooting the driver of a school bus and fleeing with a 6-year-old child passenger, authorities said. The man boarded the stopped school bus in the town of Midland City on Tuesday afternoon and shot the driver when he refused to let the child off the bus. The bus driver died. (AP Photo/The Dothan Eagle, Danny Tindell)— AP

In this Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013 photo, students and family leave the scene of the school bus shooting. Police, SWAT teams and negotiators were at a rural property where a man was believed to be holed up in a homemade bunker Wednesday, HAN 30, 2013 after fatally shooting the driver of a school bus and fleeing with a 6-year-old child passenger, authorities said. The man boarded the stopped school bus in the town of Midland City on Tuesday afternoon and shot the driver when he refused to let the child off the bus. The bus driver died. (AP Photo/The Dothan Eagle, Danny Tindell)
/ AP

Law enforcement personnel work a check point Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013, in Midland City, Ala, below the home where Tuesday's school bus shooting suspect is barricaded in a bunker with a young child as hostage. Police, SWAT teams and negotiators were at a rural property where a man was believed to be holed up in a homemade bunker Wednesday, HAN 30, 2013 after fatally shooting the driver of a school bus and fleeing with a 6-year-old child passenger, authorities said. The man boarded the stopped school bus in the town of Midland City on Tuesday afternoon and shot the driver when he refused to let the child off the bus. The bus driver died. (AP Photo/The Dothan Eagle, Jay Hare)— AP

Law enforcement personnel work a check point Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013, in Midland City, Ala, below the home where Tuesday's school bus shooting suspect is barricaded in a bunker with a young child as hostage. Police, SWAT teams and negotiators were at a rural property where a man was believed to be holed up in a homemade bunker Wednesday, HAN 30, 2013 after fatally shooting the driver of a school bus and fleeing with a 6-year-old child passenger, authorities said. The man boarded the stopped school bus in the town of Midland City on Tuesday afternoon and shot the driver when he refused to let the child off the bus. The bus driver died. (AP Photo/The Dothan Eagle, Jay Hare)
/ AP

In this Tuesday, Jan 29, 2013 photo, residents look over the school bus where a shooting occurred near Destiny Church along U.S. 231, just north of Midland City, Ala. on Tuesday. Police, SWAT teams and negotiators were at a rural property where a man was believed to be holed up in a homemade bunker Wednesday, HAN 30, 2013 after fatally shooting the driver of a school bus and fleeing with a 6-year-old child passenger, authorities said. The man boarded the stopped school bus in the town of Midland City on Tuesday afternoon and shot the driver when he refused to let the child off the bus. The bus driver died. (AP Photo/The Dothan Eagle, Danny Tindell)— AP

In this Tuesday, Jan 29, 2013 photo, residents look over the school bus where a shooting occurred near Destiny Church along U.S. 231, just north of Midland City, Ala. on Tuesday. Police, SWAT teams and negotiators were at a rural property where a man was believed to be holed up in a homemade bunker Wednesday, HAN 30, 2013 after fatally shooting the driver of a school bus and fleeing with a 6-year-old child passenger, authorities said. The man boarded the stopped school bus in the town of Midland City on Tuesday afternoon and shot the driver when he refused to let the child off the bus. The bus driver died. (AP Photo/The Dothan Eagle, Danny Tindell)
/ AP

MIDLAND CITY, Ala. 
Police hostage negotiators were locked in a standoff Wednesday with a gunman authorities say intercepted a school bus, killed the driver, snatched a 6-year-old boy and retreated with the kindergartener into a bunker at his home.

The gunman, identified by neighbors as Jimmy Lee Dykes, a 65-year-old retired truck driver, was known around the neighborhood as a menacing figure who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a shotgun.

He had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning to answer charges he shot at his neighbors in a dispute last month over a speed bump.

The standoff along a red dirt road began on Tuesday afternoon, after a gunman boarded a stopped school bus filled with children in the small town of Midland City, population 2,300. Sheriff Wally Olsen said the man shot the bus driver when he refused to hand over a 6-year-old child. The gunman then took the kindergartener away.

"As far as we know there is no relation at all. He just wanted a child for a hostage situation," said Michael Senn, a church pastor who helped comfort the traumatized children after the attack.

The bus driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was hailed by locals as a hero who gave his life to protect 21 students.

Dykes was believed to be holed up with the boy at his rural property in an underground bunker of the sort used to take shelter from a tornado. Authorities gave no details on the standoff as it dragged on through the night and into the afternoon Wednesday, and it was unclear if Dykes had made any demands.

Police SWAT teams took up positions around the property, where Dykes lived in a small travel trailer, and about 50 vehicles from federal, state and local agencies were clustered at the end of a dirt road nearby. Nearby homes were evacuated after authorities found what was believed to be a bomb on his property.

State Rep. Steve Clouse, who met with authorities and visited the boy's family, said the bunker had food and electricity, and the youngster was watching TV. He said law enforcement authorities were communicating with the gunman, but he had no details on how.

At one point, authorities lowered medicine into the bunker for the boy after his captor agreed to it, Clouse said. The lawmaker said he did not know what the medicine was for or whether it was urgently needed.

Mike and Patricia Smith, who live across the street from Dykes and whose two children were on the bus when the shooting happened, said their youngsters had a run-in with him about 10 months ago.

"My bulldogs got loose and went over there," Patricia Smith said. "The children went to get them. He threatened to shoot them if they came back."

"He's very paranoid," her husband said. "He goes around in his yard at night with a flashlight and shotgun."